Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Winning Veteran Journalist, Dies at 62

Richard Ben Cramer, the veteran political journalist, has died. He was 62 years old. Cramer was a graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism school, worked at the Baltimore Sun, and while working at the Philadelphia Inquirer, won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in the Middle East.

“He made no bones about the fact that he became friendly with the people he reported on,” Stuart Seidel, an editor at NPR and a friend of Cramer’s, told the New York Times. “He liked Joe Biden and Bob Dole and both Bushes. He did not feel compromised by allowing himself to get close to them. He did not see himself in a confrontational reportorial role — he was telling a story.”

Cramer’s work also appeared in publications such as Esquire, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone.